That's no excuse to keep dead servers or duplicate servers that don't need to be competing for the same crowd in operation. Merge them, and people who have issues with the toxic jerks should take some initiative on their part to use the ignore and report tools. This is the internet. There will always be toxic jerks.

Ignore lists only block characters, not accounts, so harassers can make infinite numbers of alts to continue the harassment. The ignore list itself, however, is not infinite. Report does nothing 99% of the time in not only my experience, but in the experience of all my in-game friends. Some of us stay away from toxic servers like Harbinger for a reason: we don't want to play on them. Trying to force us to won't work. We'll just leave. Especially if you're going to take away all our character and guild assets in your attempt to force us to play with people we don't want to deal with to begin with.

Obviously it's lack of respect for your playstyle. They don't partake so they just ignore it as unimportant. Short-sighted and selfish.

this is <3

We can't expect anything else, though, let's be real. What sane person would spend their time actually spending the time to write, and otherwise act as if they were that character in an RPG.

That's no excuse to keep dead servers or duplicate servers that don't need to be competing for the same crowd in operation. Merge them, and people who have issues with the toxic jerks should take some initiative on their part to use the ignore and report tools. This is the internet. There will always be toxic jerks.

As opposed to those who wish to play on a server with a higher population taking some initiative and availing themselves of any of the available options which would allow them to do so?

Reg pvp is no problem - lately some qs in off hours are slower tban I like but they pop

Vet fps no problem

 

Problems:

GSf

SM Ops

Master FPs

Ranked pvp

Uprisings

etc

Ebon Hawk has one of if not the largest communities of GSF players in the game. That game mode pops regularly in prime time, and through most of the day and night when GSF is highlighted in Galactic Command. You can find groups to queue for GSF through /cjoin GSF.

Story Mode ops don't pop in GF because most everyone creates full groups either in guild or through the Allies channel and queue together. If you're having trouble getting into SM Ops on Ebon Hawk, either find a guild that runs ops, or /cjoin Allies. People form groups all the time there.

Uprisings don't pop because people don't like them and the rewards are crap for time spent dealing with a pug, not because of a lack of population.

Are you queuing as DPS only for Master Mode FPs? Because that's the only role I have to wait a long time between pops for those on Ebon Hawk, especially out of prime time. Tanks and healers don't have issues getting pops unless it's like 4 am server time.

Can't speak on Ranked PvP, I'm too much of a scrub to do that.

That's no excuse to keep dead servers or duplicate servers that don't need to be competing for the same crowd in operation. Merge them, and people who have issues with the toxic jerks should take some initiative on their part to use the ignore and report tools. This is the internet. There will always be toxic jerks.

Or you can play on the server you like and quit assuming every server needs merged just because of what you want. There are some servers that are dead yea but not every server has a problem but some of you have agenda and just want people merged on your server because you have nothing to lose in the progress. While the rest would need to worry about all their stuff the ones that keep yelling about mergers to one server want it to theirs. Interesting as long as you are not bothered it doesn't matter, but it does matter.

Ebon Hawk has one of if not the largest communities of GSF players in the game. That game mode pops regularly in prime time, and through most of the day and night when GSF is highlighted in Galactic Command. You can find groups to queue for GSF through /cjoin GSF.

 

Story Mode ops don't pop ion GF because most everyone creates full groups either in guild or through the Allies channel and queue together. If you're having trouble getting into SM Ops on Ebon Hawk, either find a guild that runs ops, or /cjoin Allies. People form groups all the time there.

 

Uprisings don't pop because people don't like them and the rewards are crap for time spent dealing with a pug, not because a lack of population.

 

Are you queuing as DPS only for Master Mode FPs? Because that's the only role I have to wait a long time between pops for those on Ebon Hawk, especially out of prime time. Tanks and healers don't have issues getting pops unless it's like 4 am server time.

 

Can't speak on Ranked PvP, I'm too much of a scrub to do that.

This except I don't do any pvp.

What is this supposed to prove? This screenshot is from 4 years ago. It literally says 2013 in the url.

OMG, don't tell me you haven't figured it out already! It'd take longer than that^ to searching far and wide for a valid premise for megaservers. <that was another *hint

You realize that not everyone wants to ride those rides with a million other people, especially with a million toxic jerks, right?

 

How much good will it do if the gaming company forces players to leave the park they are currently in (and in which they are perfectly happy--able to ride the rides they want to ride and do so without having to fight a million toxic jerks to do so) to go to a park that is overcrowded, and full of toxic jerks?

 

Will it really help those toxic jerks if none of the people who were forced to go to their park want to get in line for the rides, or worse decide to leave the park altogether?

^Finally, some common sense. I don't enjoy going to the park or beach when it's crowded either, or waiting in line just to finish heroics.

And Yes, I am [[[[["perfectly happy"]]]]] with the way servers are now; although, I wouldn't mind cross-server ques and grouping (like some other MMOs.) Cross-server grouping is a more than fair compromise for pro-mergers.

As I thought, you have no source or proof, just an assumption. It's not necessarily a bad assumption, but it IS just an assumption....

Coming from someone full of assumptions.... What's the alternative? There -isn't- one. I can't give you a quote because BW hasn't talked about it but why exactly would they need to?

^Finally, some common sense. I don't enjoy going to the park or beach when it's crowded either, or waiting in line just to finish heroics.

That one Coruscant heroic, or worse, that one Taris heroic would literally be a nightmare.

Coming from someone full of assumptions.... What's the alternative? There -isn't- one. I can't give you a quote because BW hasn't talked about it but why exactly would they need to?

That is exactly my point.

BW would not need to talk about the "why", regardless of what the "why" was.

Therefore, we do not know what they "why" is. We can guess, but we do not know, no matter what some would like to claim or have the rest of us believe.

That is exactly my point.

 

BW would not need to talk about the "why", regardless of what the "why" was.

 

Therefore, we do not know what they "why" is. We can guess, but we do not know, no matter what some would like to claim or have the rest of us believe.

End of the day Bioware will do what's best for the game and if doing a merge of certain servers then that's how the chips will fall.

End of the day Bioware will do what's best for the game and if doing a merge of certain servers then that's how the chips will fall.

At the end of the day, if BW decides that the best course of action is not to merge servers, or to only merge the old PVP servers, then that is how the chips will fall.

At the end of the day, if BW decides that the best course of action is not to merge servers, or to only merge the old PVP servers, then that is how the chips will fall.

lol if they don't merge then they don't but they will be doing something so i'm happy with what ever I have toons on most servers so it doesn't bother me to be honest.

Umm isn't that exactly what you and your fellow anti-merge posters are doing? You're dismissing the concerns of people as if it's all about queue times, not even considering that most hardcore raiders don't even use the queue, they want a server with active NiM and HM communities. Same for Ranked, we don't just want queues to pop, we need them to pop and actually work with the matchmaking, which requires a decent population size.

You're right, I have been remiss in not taking into account the people out there who need a couple of RPers to boost the NiM progression team. Tell you what, I'll take the EU servers, you take the US, we'll both try and take a census of all the RP players just choking for some hardcore NiM raiding or some Ranked PvP. I'll come back with my results by the end of the week.

You're right, I have been remiss in not taking into account the people out there who need a couple of RPers to boost the NiM progression team. Tell you what, I'll take the EU servers, you take the US, we'll both try and take a census of all the RP players just choking for some hardcore NiM raiding or some Ranked PvP. I'll come back with my results by the end of the week.

Took care of the ranked part for you.

http://www.swtor.com/leaderboards/class/undefined/the-ebon-hawk

http://www.swtor.com/leaderboards/class/undefined/begeren-colony

http://www.swtor.com/leaderboards/class/undefined/jung-ma

http://www.swtor.com/leaderboards/class/undefined/battle-meditation

http://www.swtor.com/leaderboards/class/undefined/the-progenitor

http://www.swtor.com/leaderboards/class/undefined/vanjervalis-chain

XServer is better.

Reason?

It doesn't take 82 pages of post to figure out

XServer is better.

 

Reason?

 

It doesn't take 82 pages of post to figure out

If only anyone had told Bioware back in 2012....

If only anyone had told Bioware back in 2012....

more like who ever thought of that engine should have had ideas of like real MMO stuff guess they forgot about cross server and so on.

I think that everyone, the merge server crowd especially, needs to start taking this thread more seriously. This is not a place to air you opinions about server populations or health of the servers or anything else in that vein. There are a few on the merger resistant side that are dogmatic as well but it seems that the merger resistant folks are always playing defense to the same points that keep getting brought up even though we thought they were put to bed. Merging Servers is a very serious issue that could have a significant impact on the game in a negative direction. It won't be all sunshine and roses. There is a segment of players in this game that will leave as a result of server mergers and that can't be stopped. I assume there is also a part of the gaming community that will leave if there are no server merges. It is that former group that potentially causes the most problems for the people who want server merges.

What if as a result of the server merges, people stop queuing for the random group content (either because they walk away from the game or stop playing that content). If doing a PVP warzone becomes an automatic loss and the number of medals you get drops from 8 or 10 to 2 or 3, there are a lot of people who will then consider queuing for that content a waste of time (just like some people do now because of the pop times). Nobody wants to get rolled in every warzone and the Imps have a decided advantage over Pubs already. You can say, well, if we merge servers the quality of pub players will go up. Personally, I think it is just as likely they will all switch to Imp because its easier wins. That's what is going on right now.

That is if the merger goes well. If something goes wrong, and you can say that's negative thinking if you want but it is still a major risk to the future of the game, and people in guilds decide its not worth their time to rebuild their guild on the new server. Now you have damaged the raiding community too, since most raiding is done through guilds not Groupfinder.

A serious discussion of the risks is warranted and perhaps a piecemeal approach is better than an "all in" one. One of the things that has been suggested by several people is a free character transfer program to allow those who want to move to higher population servers to do so with no cost impediment. If that does not result in the population increase that is felt is needed it brings up a very different problem. It is indicative that a lot of people don't want to play on highly populated servers which makes the risk of their leaving the game even higher if servers are merged and a different approach may be needed. There are fairly simple ways to deal with some of the other population related problems that have been brought up that don't require server merges.

I think that everyone, the merge server crowd especially, needs to start taking this thread more seriously. This is not a place to air you opinions about server populations or health of the servers or anything else in that vein. There are a few on the merger resistant side that are dogmatic as well but it seems that the merger resistant folks are always playing defense to the same points that keep getting brought up even though we thought they were put to bed. Merging Servers is a very serious issue that could have a significant impact on the game in a negative direction. It won't be all sunshine and roses. There is a segment of players in this game that will leave as a result of server mergers and that can't be stopped. I assume there is also a part of the gaming community that will leave if there are no server merges. It is that former group that potentially causes the most problems for the people who want server merges.

 

What if as a result of the server merges, people stop queuing for the random group content (either because they walk away from the game or stop playing that content). If doing a PVP warzone becomes an automatic loss and the number of medals you get drops from 8 or 10 to 2 or 3, there are a lot of people who will then consider queuing for that content a waste of time (just like some people do now because of the pop times). Nobody wants to get rolled in every warzone and the Imps have a decided advantage over Pubs already. You can say, well, if we merge servers the quality of pub players will go up. Personally, I think it is just as likely they will all switch to Imp because its easier wins. That's what is going on right now.

 

That is if the merger goes well. If something goes wrong, and you can say that's negative thinking if you want but it is still a major risk to the future of the game, and people in guilds decide its not worth their time to rebuild their guild on the new server. Now you have damaged the raiding community too, since most raiding is done through guilds not Groupfinder.

 

A serious discussion of the risks is warranted and perhaps a piecemeal approach is better than an "all in" one. One of the things that has been suggested by several people is a free character transfer program to allow those who want to move to higher population servers to do so with no cost impediment. If that does not result in the population increase that is felt is needed it brings up a very different problem. It is indicative that a lot of people don't want to play on highly populated servers which makes the risk of their leaving the game even higher if servers are merged and a different approach may be needed. There are fairly simple ways to deal with some of the other population related problems that have been brought up that don't require server merges.

They can't do much with an old engine that still runs DX9 if they decide to do a merge sometimes people scream this and that and never leave the game they just move on with the new conditions but on the forums only a few are against it not going to name names because it's breaking the ToS time will tell and what ever bioware does we have to handle it because they decide what is best we can give them ideas but that's about it.

I've been reading the back and forth on RP servers and here is my 2 credtis.

First, just because I am on a RP server doesn't mean I need to RP, not does it prohibit me from meta-gaming my way thru. Me and 7 of my buds can all group together run up to the Nightmare Pilgrim and smash him to bits while some RPers opt to parley with him (given he pops off clicking a stone is yet another weird thing). So while the RPers go off and comment whether or not the Nightmare Pilgrim is lurking in the brush, we can click and hammer the guy. Based on my understanding of the rules, the RPers really have no recourse since they can't 'grief' the non-RPers by Dragonball Z'ing every single encounter (i.e. 30 mins of smack talk before a fight then 30 mins of smack talk about the fight). If I'm wrong I'm wrong.

Point here is they don't need a server of their own when an instance will work unless the number of RPers globally justifies a server of their own (same with PvP for that matter). However for all the yelling and screaming for various subgenre items like PvP and RP, in the case of PvP if that was so popular then why when they enabled voluntary server moves they emptied out and even PvP instances are notably vacant except for people farming mats?

Reality is a single mega server for the US and Europe respectively would solve some issues. If the load on your rig is too much to handle high pop areas, then you could swap down to a less popular instance. in fact, there is another option - High load instance (500+), Heavy load instance (250 to 500), Mid load instance (100 to 250) to light load instance (under 100) then replicate to RP and PvP. It would be simpler to manage (all GMs if they still exist could police a single server x2) and players could preselect their instance preference or load it in light and have people bounce to heavy.

I think that everyone, the merge server crowd especially, needs to start taking this thread more seriously. This is not a place to air you opinions about server populations or health of the servers or anything else in that vein. There are a few on the merger resistant side that are dogmatic as well but it seems that the merger resistant folks are always playing defense to the same points that keep getting brought up even though we thought they were put to bed. Merging Servers is a very serious issue that could have a significant impact on the game in a negative direction. It won't be all sunshine and roses. There is a segment of players in this game that will leave as a result of server mergers and that can't be stopped. I assume there is also a part of the gaming community that will leave if there are no server merges. It is that former group that potentially causes the most problems for the people who want server merges.

 

What if as a result of the server merges, people stop queuing for the random group content (either because they walk away from the game or stop playing that content). If doing a PVP warzone becomes an automatic loss and the number of medals you get drops from 8 or 10 to 2 or 3, there are a lot of people who will then consider queuing for that content a waste of time (just like some people do now because of the pop times). Nobody wants to get rolled in every warzone and the Imps have a decided advantage over Pubs already. You can say, well, if we merge servers the quality of pub players will go up. Personally, I think it is just as likely they will all switch to Imp because its easier wins. That's what is going on right now.

 

That is if the merger goes well. If something goes wrong, and you can say that's negative thinking if you want but it is still a major risk to the future of the game, and people in guilds decide its not worth their time to rebuild their guild on the new server. Now you have damaged the raiding community too, since most raiding is done through guilds not Groupfinder.

 

A serious discussion of the risks is warranted and perhaps a piecemeal approach is better than an "all in" one. One of the things that has been suggested by several people is a free character transfer program to allow those who want to move to higher population servers to do so with no cost impediment. If that does not result in the population increase that is felt is needed it brings up a very different problem. It is indicative that a lot of people don't want to play on highly populated servers which makes the risk of their leaving the game even higher if servers are merged and a different approach may be needed. There are fairly simple ways to deal with some of the other population related problems that have been brought up that don't require server merges.

Actually in this you raise a valid point that I haven't really seen raised.

What is the actual status of the servers? How were the servers a year ago? Two Years? During the last merge?

What I see here is a bunch of opinion and conjecture with little to no fact. Reason there is no fact is Bioware hasn't addressed the status of the game. No where do I see total accounts per server, total characters per server, Actual characters per account / server or even active accounts percentage per server in both relative and absolute metrics. FYI - I don't think we will ever get this information, but it would solve a bunch of speculation and arguments. In fact, since I think its single digits of people in percentage in terms of the overall number of accounts that will post on the forums, even asking here isn't democratic. Rather I would do something like this in email:

"Dear Subscriber,

Our records indicate your subscription has been active since (first activation) and you have participated actively on X server in the past 30 days. As a result, we are considering consolidation of your server with another yet undecided server. We however would like your input. Would you rather your characters be moved to a 'holding bin' for free transfer to the server of your choice or would you prefer your characters be assigned to the yet unnamed server. Please login to SWTOR.com and select your preference. Add decisions made will be final on (date). Should you neither have a preference or fail to make a selection, your characters will be by default migrated.

Sincerely,

SWTOR Customer Service"

This would give the best to both worlds. Alternative letters could be whether or not to transfer to a new server or remain with the understanding you are on a 'low pop' server and make be forced to merge at a later date or if the majority opts to switch and it is no longer profitable to maintain the server. After all, if you prefer low pop servers, you could move to another low pop server. Guild masters would assume control over guild assets in the transfer. In fact, it could be done in a 'wave' type format as not to have a musical chairs of high pops becoming low pops and low pops getting closed with others attempting to migrate there.

Blakinik

PS - Even on the metrics front, it could even tell what the 'prime' times are for the server to best enable you to find a server that corresponds to your play time. It could even make 'recommendations' of servers that would be best based on if you want prime time or off prime to play your characters. In fact, a ton could be done with data analytics if this was addressed.

I've been reading the back and forth on RP servers and here is my 2 credtis.

 

First, just because I am on a RP server doesn't mean I need to RP, not does it prohibit me from meta-gaming my way thru. Me and 7 of my buds can all group together run up to the Nightmare Pilgrim and smash him to bits while some RPers opt to parley with him (given he pops off clicking a stone is yet another weird thing). So while the RPers go off and comment whether or not the Nightmare Pilgrim is lurking in the brush, we can click and hammer the guy. Based on my understanding of the rules, the RPers really have no recourse since they can't 'grief' the non-RPers by Dragonball Z'ing every single encounter (i.e. 30 mins of smack talk before a fight then 30 mins of smack talk about the fight). If I'm wrong I'm wrong.

I'm confused... the scenario you have presented is bizarre to begin with, and I fail to see how it relates to anything we're discussing? No one's talking about RPers trying to 'steal' world bosses from PvE players... somehow... yeah, very confused here.

Point here is they don't need a server of their own when an instance will work unless the number of RPers globally justifies a server of their own (same with PvP for that matter).

Once again, Ebon Hawk was designated as an RP server from the very start of the game, and right now it is the second highest populated server in the NA region. Sounds like enough roleplayers around to justify one server at least to be left for RPers to me? At least in the NA region... I have no idea what population numbers are like on the EU servers, especially since they're divided up by language. But I would think at least one RP server per region would be reasonable--and that's only if that wouldn't make the latency issues a deal-breaker for people far away from wherever that server ends up being located.

And YET AGAIN, it has been explained over and over and over at this point how an RP instance will not work, and will only expose RPers to even more trolling, griefing, and harassment than they already have to tolerate. You can go back and read the many, many posts on this subject for the reasoning, I'm not going to repeat myself again.

Make 2 mega servers. One East coast, and one West coast. Funnel all existing north American servers into those two. Use the additional then free servers to help support the main two. Boom problem solved.

I am against this as I started a toon on EH which is a RP server and wanted to gouge my eyes out after 5 minutes on Hutta. General Chat full of people talking about these "bounties" they are going to collect and such. Some might say that I could turn off general chat but random people like to whisper you too.

The only way I could see merging with an RP server is if they made a specific RP channel and could enforce only RP in that channel.

*Note the above isn't only on Hutta but many other planets and sometimes including fleet.